Europe

In spite of Paris attack, Le Pen, Fillon and Macron could all be swept aside by a mass vote for Mélenchon

The first round of the presidential election campaign is on Sunday (23 April). Gauche Révolutionnaire (the CWI in France) has carried on their web-site the text of a leaflet they are using to campaign for the maximum vote for Mélenchon, the candidate of France Insoumise (France Unbowed). (See previous article on this site)

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Mélenchon is being targeted by all the media in defence of the system. Why? Because he proposes the policies we need: increasing wages and pensions, decreasing working hours to take on more workers, public investment to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. He argues that economic policy must respect nature and the human being – otherwise the world will not survive.

Opposite him are Francois Fillon and Emmanuel Macron. Fillon and his business affairs, the fictitious jobs of his family paid with public money, his promise to destroy 500,000 jobs in the public services, to lower taxes for the rich but increase VAT which hits workers and everyone on low incomes. Macron, is a former Economy Minister in the ‘Socialist’ government of Hollande which has seen an increase of 1.5 million unemployed in five years and the fortunes of the richest continue to increase while nine million people in France live in poverty. He is also promising hundreds of thousands of job cuts in the public services.

Let’s revolt! No more dictatorship of the super-rich! Vote Mélenchon!

Fillon and Macron speak of "sacrifices," but never for the rich. It is always meant for the ordinary people while continually raising taxes on the middle classes.

As for Le Pen, her slogans are always against "migrants", or against Muslims. She apparently has no word to say against the super-rich and the capitalists, when it is they who close the factories and over-exploit the workers to increase their profits. She is against the system but all the leaders of her party, the National Front, hold two positions as elected officials! Her racism is aimed at dividing us to weaken our struggles against this system.

None of these three wants to deal with the real causes of the problems. For example, the €75 billion profits made in 2016 by the top 40 French companies. This money would be enough to provide jobs, public services (health, education ...) free of charge and good quality for everyone. It would just be a matter of going and getting it!

All three must be seen off!

Tens of thousands of people are participating in the Mélenchon campaign rallies. After all these years suffering attacks on retirement rights, on education, on public services like health (22,000 job cuts since 2015), suffering the smashing up of the labour codes with the El Khomri ‘reform’, seeing wages go down while the rich always get richer, we now have the chance to say "stop!"! We are already millions strong and this can change everything.

After the struggle against the labour law changes, with hundreds of strikes, and the strike struggles of today, a vast movement has begun: we will not let ourselves be trampled on! Voting Mélenchon in a big way and getting him into the second round, this can show that the camp of workers and young people – ordinary layers in society – is gathering the force to stop the anti-social policies of the ruling politicians.

That is why the Gauche Révolutionnaire is campaigning for the maximum vote for Mélenchon.

As long as the present system is in place, with its dictatorship of profit, we will suffer unemployment, low wages, and corrupt politicians like Fillon who will continue to demand sacrifices. While supporting Mélenchon, we believe that we must tackle the roots of the problem and fight against capitalism.

We campaign for public ownership of the multinationals and all finance groups (insurance companies, banks, etc.) in order to organise the economy democratically, under the control of the workers and the population, according to the needs of all. It is this struggle for democratic socialism that you can be involved in with us by joining us from this moment. Mélenchon in the second round or not, it will be necessary to continue the movement, to prepare to struggle, to organise.

We need a political force, a new party, democratic and capable of bringing together tens of thousands of workers, of young people, to organise the struggle against the real parasites: the class of capitalists with their banks, their super-rich and their shareholder groups. The candidacy of Mélenchon has allowed us to rally by the millions; we must continue!

On the 23 April there is the choice: either policies in the service of the rich and the big capitalists championed by Fillon-Le Pen-Macron or a policy in the service of young people, workers and the majority of the population as championed by Mélenchon.